They Need Each Other
by MadreLoca
Summary: Annabel tells the story of her boys and their connection to each other. No slash, just a heart-warming story about the MacManus brothers' childhood. Yes, yes, corny title. Leave me alone.


**Title** – They Need Each Other

**Summary **– Annabel tells the story of her boys and their connection to each other. No slash, just a heart-warming story about the MacManus brothers' childhood. Yes, yes, corny title. Leave me alone.

**Rating** – T

**Comments** – I just needed to write a little something to get me going again so maybe, just maybe I can get Fire Domain flowing again after a ridiculously long hiatus.

I remember that damn bitter Irish winter like it was yesterday. My boys were five. Conner was sick, real damn sick. The doctor wasn't sure he would make it and he told me to keep Murphy away so he wouldn't get sick, too. I didn't want the sickness to linger at home waiting for Murphy, so I burned all of Conner's bed sheets and sent Conner a mile up the road to stay with the McCoy's. They were closer to the doctor, anyway.

And to the priest, but I didn't want to think about that.

On the night I remember most, Murphy was sitting on my lap at the kitchen table. I was reading to him from the Bible, the twenty-third Psalm I believe it was, when he interrupted me.

"Is Conner going to go to heaven, Ma?"

Don't you just love how children can corner you? The can back you to into a damn wall with their freaking innocence. How the hell was I supposed to answer a question like that? I defiantly couldn't say yes, damn sure couldn't say no.

So I didn't say anything. I put the Bible down and held him tight. We both cried until Murphy, my poor sweet little lad, ended up crying himself to sleep.

I carried him to his bed and tucked him in. He stirred a little when I first put him down. I sat on the edge of Conner's bed for a while and watched Murphy sleep before I went to my own bed. Damn I must have been tiered, because I don't even remember hitting the mattress before I was out.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible feeling in my gut. I knew something was wrong, so I jumped out of bed and ran straight for the boys' room. I screamed my damn head off when I saw that Murphy was gone. I felt a cold wave rush over me. I thought it was just the fright until I went into the living room and found the door wide open, and the wind was blowing in the cold and the snow. I ran to the door about to close it, but first I had to look down. The ground had a fresh layer of snow, but I could still see what was left of little footprints leading away from the house.

I didn't have to think twice. I knew exactly where he went.

I got there as fast as I could, watching for Murphy the whole way there. When I got to the McCoy's, I didn't even bother to knock; I just burst right in.

"Murphy," I yelled for him.

Fin came out of her bedroom in her nightgown. "What in the Lords name, Annabel?"

"Murphy ran away. I know he's here. He has to be here!"

"Well I haven't – "

"Finn," Finn's husband John interrupted, "I found our wayward lad."

John led us to the guest room where Conner slept. I didn't know if I wanted to hug Murphy or whip his ass until I saw him. There he was, just as I suspected, under the blankets snuggled right up next to Conner, both boys sound asleep. His soaking cloths and shoes were piled on the floor by the bed and I chuckled because I knew that under those blankets the boy was naked as the day he was born.

But I stopped thinking anything was funny when I realized the seriousness of what had just happened. My five year old son just walked a whole damn mile in the snow where drifts were as deep as he was tall just to see his brother.

Scared his poor mother half way to her grave.

I was almost in tears when John put his hand on my shoulder. "Those two aren't meant to be split up, Annabel. They need each other."

I sniffled a little. John was right. That's why I didn't have the heart to take Murphy away from Conner. I just left them there against warning from the doctor. I spent the night, too, so I could be there when the doctor came in the morning.

And damn the doctor was shocked when I told him what my boy Murphy had done. That wasn't all he was shocked about. He said it was a damn miracle mow much better Conner seemed.

"Yesterday I was just about certain the lad would be gone within the week," he said. "But maybe God's not quite through with Conner yet. He and Murphy will be destined for great things if Conner pulls through."

I took both boys home that afternoon. The doctor wasn't sure yet, but I was. I knew Murphy had saved Conner. Sure enough, Conner was a jumping little hellion again in two weeks time and, as always, Murphy was his partner in crime. Those two would forever terrorize their mother, and I them. I wouldn't have it any other way with my boys. I never separated them again. John and the doctor were right. They weren't meant to be separated, and they would be destined for great things. Every one of those great things they would do together because, like I said, John was right.

They need each other. They always have and they always will.


End file.
